"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Crackdown in Cuba as international media there engage in self censorship and regime propaganda

Repression in Cuba and the under reporting by the international press.

In the case of Cuba, The New York Times actively promoted Fidel Castro over other opposition figures in the struggle against Cuban dictator Batista with the reporting of Herbert Matthews. Once Fidel Castro was in power in January of 1959 and consolidating his communist regime over the first few months of his dictatorship the New York Times continued to defend the young dictator. In July of 1959 Matthews reported: "[t]his is not a Communist Revolution in any sense of the term. Fidel
Castro is not only not a Communist, he is decidedly anti-Communist." Over a half century later and the totalitarian dictatorship in Cuba has an international press corps that carries on the shameful tradition of Walter Duranty and Herbert Matthews. The New York Times continues with coverage and editorial page that goes as far as providing advice to the dictatorship on how to build coalitions with U.S. business to change Cuba policy in Washington.

"Where in the world does a woman dressed in white walking down the
street constitute a provocation? Only in a fascist-communist regime like
this. Therefore the victim gets criticized because no one dares
to criticize the executioner.

There is a real “moral inversion,” in
what the foreign media, intellectual circles, ecclesiastical circles,
diplomats and politicians are doing against the people of Cuba and
against the dissident right now. They judge the persecuted, the poor,
those who are silenced, but they do not dare to judge the government.
And what the government needs to be told is what we say in “the
People’s Path”. Hold free elections; change the law so Cubans can
express themselves, so they can choose. But what they want is to keep
their privileges while they say that everything has been agreed upon.
This joke will go very wrong because the people of Cuba are not stupid,
and the majority are still poor and distressed.

But the worst
is that the foreign media, intellectual circles, ecclesiastical circles,
and entire states are accompanying the Cuban government in setting up
this fraud, this joke that will bring only confrontation and pain to
Cubans, and that is keeping the majority of the Cuban people silent and
gagged while this virtual scenario for change is being created.

Sadly, Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas was killed on July 22, 2012 and all the evidence points to an extrajudicial execution carried out by the Castro regime's security services. However on July 22, 2012, despite the misgivings of Oswaldo's family, the AP correspondent in Havana over twitter echoed the official position of the Castro regime. The truth of what happened is coming out and the regime's false narrative is crumbling, no thanks to the Associated Press or The New York Times. Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas was murdered but his legacy of speaking truth to power in the defense of human rights and freedom lives on as do his words and the Christian Liberation Movement that he founded.